Goolsbee: Staff turnover is OK

On his last day of work at the White House on Friday, Council of Economic Advisers chairman Austan Goolsbee – one of only two remaining members of the president’s initial economic team – offered reassurance that the stewardship of the economy is still strong, even though the original crew has all abandoned ship.

“I’ve been plugging away with the president for coming on five years now, so I think it is perfectly natural” to leave, Goolsbee, who advised President Barack Obama during his Senate campaign in 2004 and during his presidential run in 2008, said on Bloomberg TV Friday morning.

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“As somebody said, in the White House, the president is running a marathon, and for the staff it’s a series of sprints until you’re too tired and you hand the baton to the next person,” he said.

Goolsbee is returning to the University of Chicago’s business school, where he is a professor.

The only other senior member of President Barack Obama’s economic team is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who has weighed a departure, but is said to be under pressure from the White House to stay put through the president’s reelection campaign.

“The president has laid out a vision for how the economy is going to grow its way out of our problems,” Goolsbee said. Staff members “help facilitate that.”

Though a replacement hasn’t been named, Goolsbee said “it’s going to be a very respected economist, they’re going to come in and do a great job.” He wouldn’t say who he’d like to see other than “who the president wants.”

Goolsbee closed by saying he “admit[s] to a certain happiness to getting back and sitting on the front porch” of his Chicago home.